Judging by yesterday’s Emmy nominations, the love affair between television and Washington
won’t be faltering anytime soon. The last year alone saw the debut of four new Washington
shows (remember the ill-fatedThe Firm?), and two of them scored big, with Showtime’sHomeland receiving nine nominations—the most for a freshman show this year. HBO’sVeep picked up three nods, including two of the most important: Outstanding Comedy Series
and Outstanding Lead Actress forJulia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer. The oft-overlooked Kennedy Center Honors got four nods this year*.

The biggest winner of the day, though, wasGame Change, HBO’s adaptation ofJohn Heilemann andMark Halperin’s best-selling book about the 2008 presidential campaign, which received 12 nominations
in total. Written byDanny Strong and co-produced byTom Hanks, the 90-minute movie focused solely on the book’s McCain-Palin chapters, with stellar
performances byJulianne Moore as Sarah Palin, Ed Harris as John McCain, andWoody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt (all three scored Emmy nominations, as didSarah Paulson for her role asNicolle Wallace).

It’s worth noting, however, that despite having a writing team that includesArmando Iannucci,Simon Blackwell, andTony Roche,Veep didn’t receive a nomination in the Writing for a Comedy Series category (but hey,
it had to compete withGirls, Parks and Recreation, and Louie). Both Homeland andVeep have been picked up for a second season, andHomeland returns to Showtime in the fall.

What does this mean for TV? Presumably that we’ll see a flood of yet more Washington
shows go into development. USA currently hasPolitical Animals, about a female Secretary of State who’s not at all dissimilar to Hillary Clinton,
while ABC hasScandal.David Fincher andKevin Spacey are currently hard at work on Netflix’s new Washington show,House of Cards. Despite the fact that none of these shows are actually filmed here, it’ll be interesting
to see what kind of new Washington shows appear in 2013 and beyond—and how many of
them are filmed in Baltimore.

Our list of the nominations for Washington shows is below. For a full list of nominees,
go to emmys.tv.